Blind Melon Quarter Three Blogging Assessment

Since the beginning of quarter two, my readership has greatly increased. My readers are no longer simply my teacher and fellow classmates in the Honors World Literature class. I have expanded my readers to include other friends and family members, as well as unknown individuals who somehow stumbled across my blog. Things changed when I began implementing media, such pictures and videos, and live links to add better features to my posts. I began discussing topics that pertained to people as a whole instead of simply writing up a blog about something that occurred in my life that particular week. My blogs now examine various topics that many find interesting, such as music, mythical creatures, and natural disasters. Even though my blogs continue to focus on matters I find interesting that week, these various topics are not solely focused on my life experiences, which may have helped to attract more viewers. My views increased significantly, from the highest number of views in a month in quarter two at forty-seven, to the highest views in a month in quarter three at ninety-one.

My post titled “Music” was very popular. This post received the most page views of all my posts. It described a controversial opinion about the music heard today, and provided links to two examples of music videos that supported the argument. I believe this was the most popular because it referred to something everyone, including both parents and teenagers, can understand and form opinions on the topic quite easily. Music is something everyone listens to and knows about, which may account for the increased number of readers for this post. The post with the second highest number of page views was titled “Musicals; making a difference, one song at a time,” which discusses a new different musicals and their importance in society today. This post may have received so many views for similar reasons. Musicals have been around for quite some time because they enhance the wonder of music in our world. The musicals I referred to are popular and many have seen them, which may be a major factor in the number of viewers. My third highest viewed post was titled “An unfortunate accident.” This post was about an issue that arose when a man died in a hospital parking lot. This terrible accident sparked controversy among the public, which made this an interesting topic to discuss. Posts with the most views seemed to cause my audience to form their own opinions about matters, creating intriguing topics for readers to enjoy and post comments. Notifying people through Facebook may have also contributed to the increased number of readers for these posts.

Under my stats, the referring sites included Facebook and Google. Many of my readers were my friends on Facebook. Using social networks greatly assisted me with obtaining an adequate number of viewers, although I hope the numbers will rise in the fourth quarter. I have not received any statistics for keyword searches yet because I have just started attempting this feature. Many of my visitors were teenagers, but also included many family members who enjoy lending a helping hand to fellow family members. I am very thankful for everyone who contributed to my increased success with blogging for the first time.

Questions that remain for me would include how I might continually increase my viewers as time progresses. Using Facebook seemed to work for me, as well as texting friends my page URL. Topics pertaining to media topics or characters seemed to peak interest in my blog; therefore, this approach seemed to work best. Simple posts about events or my thoughts on my own life, which were topics in quarter two, did not work so well for me when I had just started my blogging experience for my World Literature class. Putting more effort in to searching for topics that would be interesting for not only me, but others around the world as well seemed to work in my favor. This focus caused me to begin researching a little on the topics of choice for my posts, which allowed me to support my opinion better, while also leaving the opportunity open for readers to write their own thoughts and feelings on the matters. I would award myself a ninety-four because I was successfully able to increase my number of viewers, while also continuing to write in my own style on topics that still interested me, but I had the public in mind while blogging. I put forth much effort in to writing these blogs in order to attract more readers. I spent much time carefully choosing appropriate words that sufficiently expressed my thoughts and the facts on the matters. I kept my readers in mind, while remaining true to myself.

Throughout this blogging experience, I have learned much about audience. Readers seem to enjoy topics geared more toward things shown in the media, such as the natural disasters that plagued Japan, the accident outside the hospital, musical films and shows, and the major topic of music. Audiences enjoy reading about aspects that they are familiar with, or topics that create certain feelings within them. I can use this new information about audience in the future by cleverly voicing my opinion in new ways that are enhanced by factual information, and pose questions that allow the audience to state opinions on the various matters. I see my writing persona a little differently now because I am no longer writing for a group of ten people; I am striving for an audience of hundreds of viewers. My writing is now geared more toward facts, opinions, and interacting questions to make the audience think about the topic of the blog. I work my hardest to keep up with my blog and discover new ideas for interesting posts to create. My audience is always in mind, which makes writing difficult at times, but if I keep my own thoughts and opinions in mind, the rest will fall in to place accordingly.

Devastation in Japan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598

Natural disasters recently plagued Japan, causing much destruction. An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 struck with much force relatively 250 miles northeast of Tokyo. After facing the damage of the earthquake, not much time had passed for the Japanese to prepare themselves until a tsunami devastating much of Tokyo and doing a significant amount of damage to their nuclear power plant. Officials say that there were three hundred and fifty deaths as well as five hundred people missing; however, they fear that the toll for both will be much higher. The wave reached far inland; cars, houses/buildings, and ships were all swept away while motorist were seen trying to speed away from the incoming water. Meanwhile, the tsunami was traveling five hundred miles per hour across the Pacific Ocean, the equivalent of a major jetliner, hitting California, Oregon and Washington with six to seven foot waves, but not much damage was reported.

Although the city was facing extreme levels of emergency, the nuclear power plant was experiencing a much bigger threat. The combined damage of the earthquake and tsunami together created the ongoing threat the nuclear power plant poses. The cooling system was severely damaged and as a result the plant and surrounding areas had to be evacuated. Facing such heightened levels of danger, a few men stayed behind, by their own free will, to continually pour water on the reactor to prevent it from exploding. As an added measure of security some of the radioactivity had to be released in the air to help prevent an explosion. In the meantime though, four other nuclear power plants were successfully shut down. The radiation has spread across the Pacific Ocean to even as far as the state of Wyoming.
           
Despite this world crisis, this only adds on to the chaos existing currently, ranging from the war in Iraq to healing from Hurricane Katrina, as well as the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana; not to mention the danger the natural environment is confronting. When natural disasters occur, often more than one country is affected. This creates a combined effort to help the damaged areas, such as the efforts that have been formed to provide aid for Japan during this difficult time. My opinion is that we can all do something and should in fact lend a further helping hand to those in need, whether the contribution be big or small, some effort is better than none.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12721492

College Roommates

As the months before college grow fewer, I have started thinking about all the possibilities and dangers that arise in the college setting. By coincidence, I happened to have gone to the movies the other weekend and watched The Roommate. In this movie, two college girls, Sarah and Rebecca, become roommates. Everything seems normal and pleasant in the beginning as a trusting relationship builds between the girls. Rebecca grows quite fond of Sarah as the story unfolds, but Sarah remains oblivious to the obsession Rebecca is developing. Rebacca then takes it upon herself to eliminate the people from Sarah's life she finds as a bad influence or unwanted person for Sarah. Others begin to notice that something is not right about Rebecca, so they try to find ways for Sarah to see something was wrong. Eventually Rebecca's actions become more dangerous, and some people are faced with the matter of life and death.

The climax of the film caused me to wonder if something like this could actually occur when I become a college student. Going off to college is supposed to be a great, new, and exciting experience, but how safe is this experience? I do not know who my roommate will be, nor do I know the types of people I will come into contact with on a daily basis. I am anxious to go to college and see what new experiences I will encounter, some for better while others for worse. If you are in highschool, are you worried about what experiences you will face in college? What are you looking forward to with college? if you are in college or have graduated already, what experiences stand out the most?